Saturday, 30 November 2013

Dr. Ted Mazer is one of the few ear, nose and throat specialists in this region who treat low-income people on Medicaid, so many of his patients travel long distances to see him.

But now, as California’s Medicaid program is preparing for a major expansion under President Obama’s health care law, Dr. Mazer says he cannot accept additional patients under the government insurance program for a simple reason: It does not pay enough.

“It’s a bad situation that is likely to be made worse,” he said.

His view is shared by many doctors around the country. Medicaid for years has struggled with a shortage of doctors willing to accept its low reimbursement rates and red tape, forcing many patients to wait for care, particularly from specialists like Dr. Mazer.

Yet in just five weeks, millions of additional Americans will be covered by the program, many of them older people with an array of health problems. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that nine million people will gain coverage through Medicaid next year alone. In many of the 26 states expanding the program, the newly eligible have been flocking to sign up.

P.J. O’Rourke has some predictably insightful thoughts on Baby Boomers, including a breakdown of the horde into smaller cohorts:

The seniors of this generation were born in the late 1940s. The author is of that ilk. The seniors were on the bow wave of the baby boom’s voyage of exploration. But they were also closely tethered in the wake of preceding generations. In effect the seniors were keelhauled by the baby-boom experience and left a bit soggy and shaken. If we wound up as financial advisers trying to wear tongue studs or Trotskyites trying to organize Tea Party protests, or both, we are to be forgiven. Hillary Clinton and Cheech Marin are seniors.

The juniors were born in the early 1950s. They were often younger siblings of the seniors and came of age when parents were throwing in the towel during the “What’s the Matter with Kids These Days” feature match. The juniors pursued the notions, whims and fancies of the baby boom with a greater intensity. For them, drugs were no longer experimental; drugs were proven. From the juniors we got the teeny-boppers, the groupies and the more ragamuffin barefoot urchins of Haight-Ashbury. They hunted up some shoes when they eventually made their way to Silicon Valley. (Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were both born in 1955.) But they never did find their neckties.

The sophomores were born in the late 1950s. By the time they reached adolescence, the baby-boom ethos had permeated society. Sophomores gladly accepted sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll and the deep philosophical underpinning thereof. But they’d seen enough of the baby boom in action to realize that what works in general terms doesn’t always work when the bong sets fire to the beanbag chair. Circumstances had changed. In college, many of the sophomores attended classes. Some even sneaked off and got M.B.A.s.

The freshmen were born in the early 1960s. They felt no visceral effects from the events that formed the baby boom. To freshmen, the Vietnam War was just something that was inexplicably on TV all the time, like Ed McMahon. Feminism had gone from a pressing social issue to a Bea Arthur comedy show that their parents liked, and, by the time the freshmen were in college, feminism was an essay topic for the “Reading Shakespeare in Cultural Context” course. Hint: Lady Macbeth hit that glass ceiling hard.

Speaking as a 1960 model, that line about Vietnam is spot on. America was at war from the time I was five to thirteen. News programs without casualty numbers seemed weird.

Friday, 29 November 2013

A couple of weeks ago I detailed the conversion of the deluded but delicious Kirsten Powers to an Obambicare opponent, but didn’t have at hand her most damning accusations. Here they are:

My blood pressure goes up every time they say that they’re protecting us from substandard health insurance plans because there is nothing to support what they’re saying. I have talked about how I am losing my health insurance. If I want to keep the same health insurance, it’s going to cost twice as much. There’s nothing substandard about my plan. All of the things they say that are not in my plan are in my plan. All of the things that they have listed — there’s no explanation for the doubling of my premiums other than the fact it’s subsidizing other people.

They need to be honest about that — that that’s the reason they don’t want to change it. It’s because they’re basically taking the people who are responsible enough to get health insurance in the individual market and asking them to subsidize other people. So they’re taking young healthy people and asking them to subsidize other people. I don’t think that’s going to last, frankly.

[...]

They have bigger problems than fixing the website. They have bigger problems, such as the fact that nobody believes anything they say anymore. And even the idea that they think that fifty-year-olds should have maternity care is very concerning to me. You know, people are being forced to pay for things that they will not use. It is not for them to tell people ... I don’t need to be told I need to have mental health coverage; if I wanted it, I would have gotten it. I think people are getting a little fed up, even Democrats, with this stuff.

Oddly, if you watch the video you might conclude that Ms. Powers now needs the very mental health care she didn’t want or need before.

State wildlife officials said they weren’t sure how much interest there would be in salvaging road-killed animals for food, but with 11 permits issued in the first two days they were available, clearly the interest is there.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim tells the Missoulian three permits were requested for animals killed in Flathead County, with one each issued in Missoula, Broadwater, Jefferson, Madison, Powell and Lewis and Clark counties. Two elk, one mule deer and eight whitetail deer were claimed between Monday night and mid-day Wednesday.

People wanting to salvage deer, elk, antelope or moose killed by vehicles must apply for a free permit within 24 hours and must remove the entire animal.

People are urged to use caution in determining if the meat is safe to eat.

Thursday, 28 November 2013

Days before the Obama administration’s self-imposed Nov. 30 deadline for fixing HealthCare.gov, its technology team is scrambling to build a new part of the Web site as a workaround that would enable more people to buy health insurance without relying directly on the site.

The new mechanism, EZ App, would permit people who are eligible for financial help from the government to enroll for coverage without calculating an exact subsidy amount, which has been a major stumbling block, according to government and insurance industry officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be frank. It would allow call centers, and eventually insurance companies and brokers, to help people enroll based on estimates of what their federal subsidies would be.

But insurers are uncomfortable with the add-on because they do not want to shoulder the financial liability for customers signing up for plans with a rough estimate of their final premiums, rather than a precise figure verified through the site.

The workaround, aimed at diverting consumers from the Web site, is the latest indication that significant uncertainty remains about how the government will handle the large number of people who are likely to want to sign up for health plans soon.

A leader of the Navajo Code Talkers who appeared at a Washington Redskins home football game said Wednesday the team name is a symbol of loyalty and courage -- not a slur as asserted by critics who want it changed.

Roy Hawthorne, 87, of Lupton, Ariz., was one of four Code Talkers honored for their service in World War II during the Monday night game against the San Francisco 49ers.

Hawthorne, vice president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association, said the group’s trip was paid for by the Redskins. The four men met briefly with team owner Dan Snyder but did not discuss the name, Hawthorne said.

Still, he said he would endorse the name if asked, and the televised appearance in which three of the Indians wore Redskins jackets spoke for itself.

But you can’t hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg - isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!

It turns out the Lyin’ Lesbo lies about nearly everything, including her serving in Afghanistan, being raped by her father, having cervical cancer (which killed the baby resulting from the rape), and having Hurricane Sandy put a boat through her living room. I’m no longer sure she’s a lesbian. (In case you’ve forgotten about Morgan Fairchild.)

The United States flew two B-52 bombers over the disputed Senkaku Islands as part of a training exercise on Monday night, further dipping a toe into the heated territorial fight between China and Japan.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described it as a “routine” flight that started and ended in Guam.

Although the flight path is routine for the U.S., there were much larger risks and implications involved in the exercise, called “Coral Lightning.”

Over the weekend, the Chinese publicly designated the disputed island territory to be within its own Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), meaning airspace that it controls.

That announcement was the latest in an ongoing war of words with the Japanese over ownership of the islands. And it elicited an angry response from the Japanese government. Japanese officials called the announcement a “profoundly dangerous” and “unilateral” act that has “no validity whatsoever.” They also warned it “may cause unintended consequences.”

Some readers may recall the 1981 skirmish in international waters off the Libyan coast:

In 1973, Libya claimed the Gulf of Sidra as a closed bay and part of its territorial waters. This prompted the United States to conduct Freedom of Navigation (FON) operations in the area since the claim did not meet the criteria established by international law.

[...]

On the morning of 19 August, after having diverted a number of Libyan “mock” attacks on the battle group the previous day, two F-14s from VF-41 “Black Aces”, Fast Eagle 102 (CDR Henry ‘Hank’ Kleemann/LT David ‘DJ’ Venlet) and Fast Eagle 107 (LT Lawrence ‘Music’ Muczynski/LTJG James ‘Amos’ Anderson), were flying combat air patrol (CAP) to cover aircraft engaged in a missile exercise. While in their CAP pattern, the F-14s detected two Sukhoi Su-22 Fitters taking off from Ghurdabiyah Air Base near the city of Sirte.

The two F-14s set up for an intercept as the contacts headed north towards them. Only a few seconds before the crossing, at an estimated distance of 300 m, one of the Libyans fired an AA-2 “Atoll” at one of the F-14s, which missed. Then the two Sukhois split as they flew past the Americans; the leader turning to the northwest and the wingman turning southeast in the direction of the Libyan coast. The Tomcats evaded the missile and were cleared to return fire by their rules of engagement, which mandated self defense on the initiation of hostile action. The Tomcats turned hard port and came behind the Libyan jets. The Americans fired AIM-9L Sidewinders; the first kill is credited to Fast Eagle 102, the second to Fast Eagle 107. Both Libyan pilots ejected.

What’s odd about this latest operation is the lack of an air-to-air capability in the aircraft we chose to conduct it. Obviously we needed something with the “legs” to do it, but the B-52’s were sitting ducks—Peking ducks!—if the Chinese chose to attack them, something they have a habit of doing. Which makes me wonder: Were these really B-52’s, or was this a replay of Operation Bolo?